Friday, October 30, 2009

Stab to the neck again for another reason!

It has been 3 years of increasing daily neck pain and constant neck cracking to relieve the herniation of tears and cracks . I have opted for an Cervical Epidural Injection instead of a cage fusion. Ortho surgeon referred me to Pain Management. The injection places anti-inflammatory medicine into the epidural space to decrease inflammation of the nerve roots, hopefully reducing the pain in the neck, shoulders and arms. Scared poopless, I laid wide awake until 3:45AM.
I go to Evangelical Ambulatory Surgical Center at 7AM. I get undressed and ready to go into the OR. I hear an announcement, "Dr Dominick has entered the building."I am laughing as the door opens and repeat it. His sonar leads to me. He commented that this is the only place that I get to see him anymore. Gotta get all fixed up so I can ride.
Head to the OR hallway and chat chat with TommyD again. He asked when we were going mountain biking. I wanted to know if I really had to wait 6-8 months(post shoulder surgery). Sure do! Hopefully he will do the W101. He got a new bike, which I call my future yard sale item...GF Superfly HT. I tried to get him to do the procedure. He even went in the OR room and announced he was doing it. We parted our OR ways.
1. Transfer to OR table. Roll over on tummy and place my face into a cushioned form. I got a bit concerned when the Dr asked if I had an MRI done. This means she never looked at it prior to this procedure!
2. Oxygen is placed in my nostrils. There was some relaxation med and light anesthesia. I was told to move my chin towards my chest. My arms were placed down my sides. I had underwear roaching up my left butt cheek.
3. Dr said, "there will be a popping and stinging". The needle was going into the disc space via fluoroscope. Some intense pain with the fluid going in but seemed tolerable for about 5 minutes. I was ready to bit my tongue!
4. Then she said, "you are going to feel pressure". It was felt in the lower center of my cervical neck. Simultaneously my arms felt numb for 30 seconds.
5. So quick ...I rolled over and onto the gurney to go to the recovery room. There I stayed for 30 minutes and I was on my way. I felt stabbing ache in a triangle between my scapulas.

Ice Ice Ice. There is a nervy pain in my spine if I try to move my chin towards my check or move side to side in the area of C7 -T1.

I was told it would take 24hrs or more with full effect at seven days. The pain has indeed decreased. I do not have to crack my neck whiplashingly as much. I really hope this works for a very long time. I have a second shot set up for December 9.

I have had a life of traumatic body events. Starting with my neck hitting a dock post going extremely fast...

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Long Fun Weekend in Western PA with ShuShu & Bike Faerie

My shoulder started making great progress last week. So I decide to head out to SRU and pick up my daughter, Kelsi and head down to my old college mate's house, because my Kelsi was mountain bike racing at Brady's Run. My friend, Jen was so eager to have us prehike the trail. It was quite a steep climb in the beginning which had my lungs going on foot because Jen was in trail run mode and was getting so excited that she wanted to race like a mad woman going downhill. Hip surgery is looming for her next month. The trail was not real technical but it did seem to have a lot of wet log gardens and roots to send you off camber.

Next day was a repeat run with my lug butt to get before the racers and watch.
Kelsi on her rigid SS got Womens 3rd.

Jen and Frank certainly filled the weekend with hilarious toots of laughter. Kelsi was anxious to show us her BIKE FAERIE costume that she made out of various bike parts and leather. It is amazing. She modeled it for us up a tree and gliding on her bike.